What I lack in wisdom I make up in grandiosity.

Frugality

This is probably not a comprehensive list, and — to be honest — I spent more than I intended to this month. I bought two pairs of shoes (on clearance, at least) as well as some fabric I definitely didn’t need, and we spent more on take out than I would like. Hopefully I will be too busy in July focusing on Camp Nanowrimo to spend a lot of money.

In June I:

Had a free Starbucks drink on my card.

Did an additional project for a client to bring in some extra income.

Replaced the streaming device on our bedroom TV. Using a combination of credit card points and a coupon, Lennox bought a new Roku for only $10! I have been watching a lot of PBS on there, which I had previously been watching on the laptop. Much more convenient! (The PBS channel is free, too.)

Um, I am not doing a very good job at keeping up with these posts. And this month I didn’t even do a very good job at keeping my list! I’d like to order the failure platter with a side of shame sauce, thanks.

Anyway, as far as I can tell I:

Used my last birthday goodie from last month, a $5 off coupon at Jason’s Deli. (The potato soup is back! It’s my favorite thing there, but it’s seasonal.)

Got a free jar of salsa, a free Larabar, and a free package of fancy Jell-O pudding mix at Kroger.

Sewed a top using fabric scraps and fabric from a failed sewing experiment — and a free sewing pattern download. I even used a leftover piece of bias tape and thread I already had on hand. Although my time and labor certainly count for something, speaking only of supplies, I managed to make myself a free shirt.

Read 17 free eBooks from the library, and one truly dreadful free book on my Kindle app. Seriously, I regretted it. Even though it was free. Ugh.

While we’re still keeping our failures in mind (I say “our” like I’m referring to myself in the royal “we,” I guess), I didn’t earn as much as usual this month, either — and wasn’t able to transfer anything extra from my income into savings. Perhaps I should add a slice of humble pie to my order above, too.

Used DuoLingo daily to re-learn French. I do this all the time, actually, but I’ve never thought to add it to the list. It’s free basic instruction, and although the Owl mascot is a passive-aggressive super freak, it’s a fantastic resource.

We went out to eat for Valentine’s Day…but we used a coupon.

Finally bought a piece of software (Scrivener) after a couple of years of dithering around. I’d almost purchased it at least three time before, but it was 50% off, so I finally did it. Here’s to (hopefully) more organized novel writing!

Bought a cardigan sweater at the thrift store on clearance for $0.77. Like new, less than a buck!

Gave Lennox a haircut. He has very long hair, so I just trim it right across the bottom. It’s just like trimming bangs, except on a longer scale. And it took me all of the length of an Onion A.V. Club video to do it, so it saved a few bucks and a lot of time.

Downloaded a free Kindle First book. Although it’s an Amazon Prime benefit, I don’t always find the monthly book selections interesting enough to bother getting one. It doesn’t matter if something is free if you really won’t use it — or read it, in this case.

Used a $10 coupon (sent for my birthday) to order my favorite peach tea in bulk at a discount.

All that being said, sometimes you have to compromise. My husband and I share a car — which is very frugal, of course — so I often don’t have have the ability to run errands when it is convenient (especially with regards to my energy level). And there are plenty of errands which are impossible to do on foot (especially since moving to this crappy neighborhood) and just too difficult to do on public transit. (We live in Houston, not Chicago. Transit here is marginal at best. I ride the bus often, but it’s rarely convenient.) So a simple grocery trip must either be done late in the evening (when I can barely do anything) or on the weekend, when the stores are packed (when I may have a panic attack from the crowd). So this really sucks! I hadn’t had groceries delivered in years — not since I worked a regular office job — and I had no idea that the options had expanded so much. I ordered from Instacart today, and it was an excellent and not-too-expensive-in-a-pinch option. Since the first delivery was free, the service fee and tip was less than a cab ride — and the personal convenience was worth every penny to me, anyway.

Used a $20 Amazon credit to order take out one day when I wasn’t feeling well.

Finally replaced our most worn (and slightly, I am ashamed to say, holey) sheets with some very soft organic cotton sheets from Target on clearance.

Ordered a case of Swiffer sheet knock offs from the Dollar Tree. I haven’t paid full price for name brand ones in years, but someone keeps buying them out as soon as they’re restocked at the closest store! At least we have room to store them.

Went to Target and actually purchased only the things on my list. That always feels good…but doesn’t always happen.

Read 4 eBooks from the library, and one free eBook from Amazon Kindle.

Over the month of January we managed to save $525 over the normal amount we normally put into our household savings. So that’s a success for sure!

Was also able to reuse some old Command hooks by getting replacement strips. Definitely cheaper than replacing the hooks with new ones.

We had been looking for a replacement for our small non-stick skillet for a while, and really wanted a ceramic lined one instead of the traditional (maybe unhealthy) kind. We hadn’t seen one in the size we needed for less than $30, but came across one at Tuesday Morning for $12! It was even a pretty green that went with our kitchen colors. We found out at the register that it was on clearance, so we ended up paying less than $10 for the exact sort of skillet we wanted. It really does pay to wait, if you can.

Stocked up on some extra groceries to take advantage of some good sale prices.

Read somewhere that the average person spends $147 on Valentine’s Day gifts and laughed myself silly. I’d say Lennox spends about $30 on flowers for me (never roses, roses are for chumps, haha), and I spend about $5 on a fancy card for him. Some years we go out to dinner somewhere casual, often my favorite Mexican restaurant — no reservations required, and only around $35. I’d say spending $70 at the most instead of nearly $300 is a pretty significant savings — and also a good example of the sorts of habits most representative of lifelong frugality.

Got my eShakti order in the mail, courtesy of a very generous gift card I got from my Mom in December. I wasn’t sure I should really include it here, as I did spend about $60 over the value of the gift card, but considering that I got two custom size dresses and a custom shirt, I still feel like I got a good deal. I rarely get brand new clothes (that I don’t sew myself), so it feels like a real indulgence! However, considering that I do get higher quality clothes from eShakti that last longer and look better than regular off-the-rack clothes, I still think this counts. Considering how disposable fast fashion clothing can be — it rarely lasts more than a few washes, in my experience — I bet I actually save money shopping this way in the long run. I have a dress from eShakti that I purchased in 2010 and still wear, for instance.

Read only one eBook from the library this week, mostly because I have been way too busy working to read at my normal pace.

My list is for two weeks together this time. January is always my busiest month (and this month has been busier earlier than usual, due to IRS deadline changes), so I have been more focused on client work than anything else.

In the past two weeks I:

Signed up for another free/reduced price eBook notification e-mail newsletter. I read so voraciously that I need more than one! Have also decided to track how much I spend on books this year to establish (and stick) to a budget. I’m only tracking the expense for now, but I expect it will be an eye opening figure…like the six months I spent tracking my fabric purchases several years ago.

Took on a couple of extra client projects — both one-off projects that shouldn’t take too much time, but will bring in just a little bit extra income. This was maybe ill-timed on my part — January is already kind of kicking my butt — but the opportunity was there, so I took it. I’ve also, of course, been working extra hours at my regular job.

Opted not to spend $99 to restore the files saved in our cloud back up when we got a new computer, but to spend the time to download the files in batches instead.

Used a coupon code for a $0.99 streaming video rental on Amazon.

Got free tortilla chips and a free can of refried beans (which I coincidentally needed for a recipe) from Kroger.

Got a free one year subscription to Real Simple by joining a new survey company. (I like the pictures…but not enough to pay for them.)

Read 7 eBooks from the library, and watched a DVD from the library, too.

I’d started these posts as a kind of internal accountability thing, but lost the thread somewhere along the line. I’m going to try to be more consistent in the weeks to come.

Since my last post, I did a variety of things to save money:

A bunch of things I never bother to put on the list, but always do: hung at least part of every load of laundry (even without a clothesline, on racks in the house), kept the A/C up high during the day time (or the heat low), drank mostly water or tea at home.

Had a free chai using a Star Reward on my Starbucks card.

We got a Visa gift card when we upgraded our Uverse service, so we used it to have several dinners out. Can’t beat free meals, right?

Took advantage of a 40% off sale to stock up on my fancy pants foundation make up and my favorite facial moisturizer.

Exquisite Ephemera

This blog is basically a snoozefest, and for that I apologize. My newsletter is where I currently share short essays, writing excerpts, and all of the most interesting links I find. Sign up below or check out the archives.